Cardinals miss – St. Louis again failed to land a key swing with runners on base, as Jordan Walker struck out in a pivotal third inning and the Cardinals lost 5-1 to the Marlins for their fourth straight defeat.
ST. LOUIS — The Busch Stadium crowd rose early, sensing a turning point when the bases were loaded in the bottom of the third inning on Saturday night. The moment had weight. The Cardinals already trailed the Marlins, 2-0.
Jordan Walker stepped in with a chance to flip the script on a red-clad offense that had been stuck. Instead, Walker swung through a Ryan Gusto sinker and quietly ended the threat.
It felt like more than a missed chance. In a manner uncharacteristic to this year’s Cardinals before this recent skid, the spot ending without a thump drained momentum almost immediately. After that, another listless six innings followed.
St. Louis finally got its first run since Wednesday’s ninth inning when Masyn Winn delivered an RBI single in the sixth. But the promise of more damage died after an inning-ending double play.
The Cardinals’ search for the kind of swing that changes games went unanswered again. St. Louis dropped its fourth straight game, 5-1.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol pointed directly to the gap between games they can control and games that slip away. “You look at the games we’re successful. we come up with that key hit. that big hit and kind of keep it rolling. ” Marmol said. “We haven’t been able to do that recently and that’s a big part of how we’ve gotten to this point.”.
On the mound, Saturday had its own strain. Andre Pallante recorded outs in the seventh inning for the third time this season, but he was charged with all five runs. The damage came in four separate innings, leaving his stat line worse than how he viewed his own execution.
Pallante said the frustration is tied to how hard it is to stick to plan once the game turns. “If I’m not getting beat in big innings, that means I must be doing something relatively right,” Pallante said. “It’s frustrating. because when you’re out there. you feel like you make a good pitch and some guy hits it. The biggest thing is, every pitcher has a plan how they attack batters. … I think it’s important that I don’t let the wrong things take me away from that.”.
The pitching has not been perfect overall, but Saturday marked only the second time this week that the Cardinals permitted more than four runs in a game. Still, even when rallies didn’t immediately look catastrophic on their own, the Cardinals have struggled to pair runs with resistance.
Across the four-game losing skid, the Cardinal bats have mustered just eight runs.
The questions hanging over the lineup were immediate: has the wet St. Louis weather left the bats feeling soggy? What gives?
Marmol didn’t buy the idea that one stretch explains everything. and he didn’t pin the problem on approach alone. “You’re going to go through stretches where your big boys don’t feel great and they’re still going to battle and give you everything they’ve got. ” Marmol said. “There’s going to be stretches where they can’t get out and they scorch everything thrown.
“Right now, we’re at a spot where we’re having to claw for every run. At some point, we’ll get out of it and be fine. But I don’t think it’s so much approach-driven as much as, just, we weren’t able to get that key hit when we had an opportunity tonight.”
St. Louis has been among the league’s stingiest teams when it comes to succumbing to strikeouts, but Saturday looked different. The Cardinals struck out nine times, all consolidated within the bottom two-thirds of the order.
While Marmol emphasized the importance of timely swings that make “big bats” matter, the late-order production didn’t arrive. Spots seven through nine failed to produce even one base runner across 12 plate appearances on Saturday.
Once seen as an example of the aggression the Cardinals’ front office has shown to fortify the bottom of its order to keep momentum going offensively, Jimmy Crooks slumped to a .157 batting mark and .501 OPS after an 0-for-4 outing that included three strikeouts.
For much of the season, St. Louis had built a cushion in the NL Wild Card standings through a habit of different parts of the roster stepping in when needed—one group picking up the slack when another couldn’t. But lately, it has been rare to see the offensive burst line up with pitching that can hold the line.
In the end, Saturday’s game turned on a familiar feeling: a promising setup arrives, the big hit doesn’t. The Cardinals lost 5-1, and the streak grew to four—one more night where the swing that changes everything never showed up.
St. Louis Cardinals Miami Marlins Busch Stadium Jordan Walker Oliver Marmol Andre Pallante Masyn Winn NL Wild Card losing streak
Unbelievable they didn’t get a big hit. That third inning was it.
I swear every time they load the bases they just… freeze. Like they forget how baseball works for 10 minutes. Walker struck out and that’s basically the whole story right there.
So they got 2 on and then bases loaded and still only scored like one run? Maybe the pitcher was cheating or something with that sinker lol. Also Marmol talking about “key hits” like it’s a switch they can flip, cmon.
Busch Stadium crowd rose and everything and then Walker just fanned… that’s gotta kill the vibe. It says Pallante got the outs in the seventh but still gave up all five runs? That part makes no sense to me. Either way, Cardinals look rattled lately, like they can’t handle pressure when runners are on. Also Marlins 5-1, yep that feels like a momentum thing, not even gonna lie.